Hillary Clinton's foreign policy: Where she stands on the issues

Senator Hillary Clinton has accepted President-Elect Barack Obama's offer to become US Secretary of State, and the public face of her former Democratic rival's administration around the world. But where does Mrs Clinton stand of key foreign policy issues?

10:36PM GMT 21 Nov 2008

IRAQ

"Ending the war in Iraq is the first step toward restoring the United States' global leadership," Mrs Clinton wrote a year ago in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine. US troops should be brought home and stability restored to the region, she said.

But on the campaign trail, Mrs Clinton was more reluctant than Mr Obama to commit to a firm timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. She refused to apologise for her 2002 Senate vote authorising the war, but did say she would like to have that vote back to do over.

AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN AND AL-QAEDA

During the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mrs Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the US should focus on improving security in Afghanistan. She has called for greater US troop deployments there.

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She also has suggested appointing a US envoy to shuttle between Afghanistan and Pakistan to help each country's leaders in the fight against a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda.

IRAN

During the Democratic presidential primary campaign, Mrs Clinton charged that Mr Obama's willingness to meet leaders of Iran, Syria and North Korea was evidence of his naivete about foreign policy. She has threatened to "obliterate" Iran if it uses nuclear weapons against Israel.

But Mrs Clinton also has argued for engaging Iran, Syria and other countries of the region in talks about the future of Iraq. One of her top foreign policy advisers, Richard Holbrooke, a former assistant secretary of state in the Bill Clinton administration, suggested recently that US contact with Iran should start through private and confidential channels to determine if there is a basis for continuing.

MIDDLE EAST

Mrs Clinton stresses the need for Arab-Israeli peace, but is considered a favourite of the pro-Israel lobby in the US.

She says the fundamentals are a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank in return for a declaration that the conflict is over, recognition of Israel's right to exist, guarantees of Israeli security, diplomatic recognition of Israel and normalisation of its relations with Arab states.

"US diplomacy is critical in helping to resolve this conflict," she said in her article in Foreign Affairs in November-December 2007. She said the US should help get Arab support for a Palestinian leadership that is willing to engage in a dialogue with the Israelis.

RUSSIA

Mrs Clinton has criticised the Bush administration's "obsessive" focus on "expensive and unproven missile defence technology" - one of the major points of contention recently in the US relationship with Russia.

She favours further reducing US and Russian nuclear arsenals, and also favours US Senate approval of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

CHINA

Clinton has said the US relationship with China will be the most important bilateral relationship in the world this century. Noting China's support was important in reaching a multilateral deal to disable North Korea's nuclear facilities, she said "we should build on this framework to establish a northeast Asian security regime."